The Importance of Milking Cows - The Dairy Alliance (2024)

When imagining a cow, you likely visualize a farmer on a stool holding a bucket as they milk a cow enjoying her cud.Regardless of if done by hand or through modern technology, this action of milking cows remains an important part of dairy farming in the United States today.

At dairy farms, the milking process begins when a heifer becomes a cow, a female bovine who has birthed a calf. After giving birth, cows produce milk for their young.If cows create milk because they have calves, shouldn’t milking cows only happen when the calves feed from them?

Well, no. The milking process begins with the birth of a calf, but it doesn’t simply stop whenever calves aren’t hungry.

The Importance of Milking Cows

Here are three reasons it is important for dairy farmers to milk cows:

• Calves wean off milk very quickly. The first days arespentdrinking colostrum, a very special and nutritious milk essential to a newborn calf’s healthcreated by the mother. Once done with colostrum, the diet is switched to milk oramilk replacer. Dairy farmers provide a bottle instead of straight from the udder to keep track of how much the calves eat. Calves are introduced to a mix of milk and dry grains as they are weaned to eattheirTMRs and water.

• Following a healthy diet for their age, calves don’t need milk for as long as a cow produces it, so this excess milk is collected for human consumption. And once cows are milked, they quickly create more milk and need to be milked again.Dairy cows are breeds chosen because of thehighamount of milk produced.Milking cows provide on average 8 gallons of milk a day per cow. Yes, an average means a cow may produce less milk, but it also means a cow may produce even more than that. No wonder cows are often milked two or three times a day!

• It’s important to keep dairy cattle happy and healthyto maintain the dairy production of quality milk. For example, somatic cells (a mixture of milk-producing cells and immune cells) are vital in the milking process. Somatic cell counts are used universally to determine the health of the cow and the quality of milk. Also, reducing the weight on a cow’s udders is important for the cows’ welfare. In fact, cows enjoy the milking process, even having a favorite area in the parlor to be milked!Dairy farmers herd cows into the parlor, clean their udderswith iodine,and attach suction tubesto gently pull the milk from the teats.

Dairy Cows Enjoy the High Life

While hard work for the workers on the farm, milking cows is a relaxingexperiencefor the herd.A cow will want to be milked until two months before her next due date, and then she will happily return when her dry period is over.Why?Without an opportunity to enter a milking parlor, adairy cowwouldproduce lots of milk she’d have tocarrythroughout her day. If the dairy farm hopes to continue collecting quality milk,ensuring the cow can give milk is a top priority.

Interested in the milking process? Want to see a calf barn up close?To discover more about milking cows and the steps in place to keep your healthy dairy products safe, visit a dairy farm this summer!You can stay in and still visit a dairy farm with these virtual tours.